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Kendrick Lamar's Great American Game (Super Bowl Reaction)

2025/2/10
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Cole Cuchna
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Cole Cuchna:我认为我在超级碗上的表演不仅仅是播放热门歌曲,而是一场纯粹的艺术表演。我做出了经过深思熟虑的决定,使其成为一种艺术呈现,而不仅仅是播放热门歌曲。我认为这正是这场表演的意义所在。缺乏热门歌曲是经过计算的。我认为大众可能会对这场表演感到困惑,而这正是我喜欢它的原因之一。我原本以为Kendrick会像预告片那样使用行进乐队,但他没有,这与整个演出的极简美学相符。这次超级碗的表演非常简约,PG Lang式的极简主义体现在干净的线条和精心计算的配色方案上,整个表演可能只有三种颜色。这次表演的许多选择都出乎意料,简约的美学也并非超级碗的常见选择。除了SZA,这次表演完全以Kendrick为中心,让人想起《Man at the Garden》和《I Deserve It All》。Kendrick是洛杉矶和纯粹嘻哈文化的象征,这次超级碗表演主要展示了这一点。Kendrick没有选择播放热门歌曲,而是选择了《GNX》和《The Battle》等歌曲,这是一个经过深思熟虑的决定。我一直认为《The Battle》象征着更大的意义,Kendrick试图表达关于文化、嘻哈的纯粹性以及他试图将其带回的方向。这份歌单对于超级碗表演来说非常疯狂,表明Kendrick对这次表演拥有完全的创作控制权。Kendrick非常聪明,他知道这样的歌单会引起一些争议,大众可能会对这次表演感到困惑,而这可能正是他的目的。Kendrick在超级碗上以一首未发行的歌曲《GNX》开场,这非常疯狂。Samuel L. Jackson扮演的Uncle Sam开场白奠定了这次表演的主题,即以足球比赛为基础,探讨美国以及融入美国文化的“游戏”。这次表演的主线是黑人融入美国流行文化以及为此可能需要做出的妥协。Kendrick通过这次表演表明他不会再玩这种“游戏”,他将展现真实的自我。《GNX》的舞者穿着红、白、蓝三色服装,这既代表了美国的主色调,也象征着血帮和瘸帮的联合。红、白、蓝三色不仅代表美国,也象征着血帮和瘸帮的联合,Kendrick一直在通过演出和宣传照来玩转这些颜色。Kendrick Lamar和PG Lang在开场就奠定了整个表演的主题。Kendrick的夹克上印有“Gloria”,这既是对他的笔的致敬,也象征着他与写作的关系。Kendrick佩戴的PG Lang链既是PG Lang的标志,也暗示了A小调。Uncle Sam告诉Kendrick他的表演太“ghetto”,需要“收敛”,这是在暗示他“太黑了”。Kendrick通过Uncle Sam的评论,预先回应了观众可能对他的表演的批评,即认为他的表演“太黑”或不符合“美国的游戏”的期望。Kendrick的回应是表演《Humble》,这首歌虽然很受欢迎,但歌词充满自我吹嘘。Kendrick在超级碗上主要表演了说唱歌曲,这非常重要。Kendrick在表演《DNA》时切换到了一条象征着康普顿街道的白色跑道,这条跑道也象征着他小时候在街上踢足球的场地。Kendrick在超级碗上表演《Euphoria》令人震惊,这首歌甚至不在专辑里。《Euphoria》是一首纯粹的说唱歌曲,没有hook,这首歌的重点就是展示Kendrick的说唱实力。Kendrick在表演中直接对着镜头说唱,这是一种非常直接和具有对抗性的方式。到目前为止,舞台上只有黑人男性舞者,这是非常故意的,接下来他会特意引入女性舞者。Uncle Sam再次出现,批评Kendrick带了他的“homboys”来,并说这是“旧的文化作弊码”。Kendrick在表演中以一种非常元的方式承认了关于他是否会表演《Not Like Us》以及是否会审查歌词的猜测。Kendrick在表演《Luther》时可能进行了对口型,之后他介绍了SZA。《All the Stars》是这次表演中唯一一首具有旋律hook的歌曲,可能更能迎合白人观众。《Luther》和《All the Stars》是这次表演中唯一具有商业吸引力的部分,可能更符合普通观众的期望。Uncle Sam再次出现,说“这就是我所说的,这就是美国想要的,安静祥和,我们快到了,别搞砸了”,Kendrick以此直接承认了他在超级碗上表演的歌曲。Kendrick通过Uncle Sam的评论,承认了围绕他的表演、足球和美国本身的政治因素。Kendrick在表演《Not Like Us》之前说“这是一个文化分歧,我要把它搬到台面上”,并提到了“40英亩和一头骡子”,这表明这首歌不仅仅是关于Drake。Kendrick在《Not Like Us》的引言中承认了这首歌的文化意义,并暗示这首歌不仅仅是针对Drake的。《Not Like Us》中已经包含了关于文化分歧、嘻哈文化以及Drake作为文化殖民者的主题。Kendrick在《Not Like Us》中走在象征着康普顿街道的跑道上,这既是他对Drake的“diss”,也是对观众的“diss”。Kendrick在表演《Not Like Us》时直视镜头并微笑,但他没有说“pedophile”。Kendrick在表演中没有出现任何消音,这表明他对表演的控制。在表演《Not Like Us》的A小调部分时,体育场内的观众一起高喊“A minor”,无人机拍摄的画面显示舞者在场地上拼出了什么。Serena Williams在《Not Like Us》中跳了一段Crip Walk,这既是对Drake的“diss”,也象征着她在体育娱乐界遇到的问题。《TV Off》的歌词与超级碗的主题非常契合,尤其是关于“mustard”的歌词。Kendrick通过《TV Off》告诉不喜欢这次表演的观众关掉电视。Kendrick将嘻哈、洛杉矶文化带到了超级碗这个最大的平台上,但他知道这会引起一些人的反感。Kendrick在超级碗上呈现了一场纯粹的说唱表演,将康普顿的街道带到了全世界。表演以“Game Over”结束,这可以解读为Kendrick赢得了比赛,也可以解读为他输掉了比赛。Kendrick没有屈服于播放热门歌曲的压力,而是做了他想做的事情,这对他来说就是胜利。作为嘻哈乐迷,我从未见过如此大规模、如此纯粹的说唱表演。Kendrick的歌单和表演与他所谈论的主题完美契合,即屈服于美国标准或期望的压力,而这些标准或期望植根于种族主义和压迫的历史。Kendrick Lamar是我们这一代最伟大的艺术家之一,他的作品具有极高的质量和深刻的内涵,我们应该对此表示感谢。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Cole Kushner shares his initial reaction to Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance, highlighting its artistic choices and potential for controversy. The lack of hits, minimal production, and absence of features were deliberate decisions that prioritized artistic presentation over commercial appeal.
  • Minimalistic PG Lang aesthetic
  • Lack of hits and features
  • Calculated decisions to prioritize artistic expression
  • Potential for backlash from the masses

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

Welcome everyone to a special episode of Dissect. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. This is an emergency instant reaction episode on Kendrick Lamar's fantastic Super Bowl performance tonight. It is 8.22 p.m. As I record this, I've watched...

The performance three times and I'm going to share with you my instant reaction. There's going to be some analysis, obviously not a complete dissection, but I do feel like I have a pretty good idea of what the performance was and I am just incredibly impressed. Let me just start there as a representative artist of this generation. You know, I think these moments are very special and especially considering what he did. I mean, this was an artist performance. This was

Pure artistry on display for the entire world. And he made some very calculated decisions to make it what I feel like is an artistic presentation and not just playing the hits. I think that was so much of what this performance was about. The lack of hits was calculated.

He's going to get backlash for it in some circles. I am totally convinced that the masses were probably very much confused with this performance and that is one of the reasons why I love it. So,

So I'm going to start this with just some general thoughts about the performance, and then I'm going to just go through each song a little bit. Again, this is not going to be a complete analysis. I might do another analysis-driven episode if I feel like there's enough after this episode to cover as I continue to dissect it and analyze it this week. But again, I do feel like I have a pretty good understanding, at least like the general idea of it. So...

I came into this, of course, speculating what he was going to do. I thought the obvious play, what I think a lot of people thought what he was going to do was a marching band of some sort. You think of New Orleans and you think of the horns of not like us and TV off. And it's like, you, that just seemed like an automatic. And of course he didn't do it. Right. And there's even the marching band in the teaser commercial for the Superbowl.

And he didn't do any, he didn't have any marching band whatsoever. Um, and so that was something I noticed right away and it tied into this larger aesthetic of the show, which was very much PG Lang, you know, PG Lang produces this whole thing, but, um,

We haven't seen a Super Bowl show like this. It was so minimal in its production. I mean, the production was grand, but in that PG Lang minimalistic way, everything was very clean, clean line, very calculated color scheme. I think there was only three colors in this entire show, which we'll talk about.

And that's something that really struck me right away was just how minimalistic the aesthetic was, which is just not the obvious choice for the Super Bowl. And that is one among many choices that were what is not the obvious choice for the Super Bowl, which is going to be a theme as we talk about this performance. So another thing that stuck out was the lack of features. You know, there's speculation of Tyler. I was guilty of speculating that.

People were thinking about Janet Jackson perhaps making a feature. There's a bunch of speculation about who he'd bring out. I thought for sure there'd be some LA rappers on stage with him. But this was all about Kendrick, aside from SZA, which we'll talk about. But this was... I mean, the thing that was crossing my mind throughout the whole thing was Man at the Garden and I Deserve It All. And Kendrick really just...

taking this moment for himself. I mean, it was a very Kendrick centered show, but Kendrick, as we're going to talk about is a symbol of Los Angeles. He is also a symbol of pure culture, pure hip hop culture. And that more than anything was what was on display at this super bowl performance. And so, um,

The lack of features, again, no marching band. He didn't do the obvious stuff. And that brings us to the set list, which, again, I think is going to cause some controversy because he didn't play that many hits and he only went as far back as Dam. There was no morale. There was no To Pimp a Butterfly. There was no Good Kid, Mad City. That is a choice. That is a very intentional choice. The easy thing to do is

would be to play the hits, would be Money Trees, it would be Mad City, All Right, you know, name your billion stream song. And he just, he did Humble, but there's a purpose to that as we'll talk about. But for the most part, this was GNX and The Battle. And The Battle, if you've been listening to my episodes on The Battle since very early on,

I was very adamant about the battle being a symbol for something larger. Kendrick was trying to say about culture, about hip hop and the purity of, of, of it and where it is today and what he's trying to bring it back to. And I think this entire performance was a continuation of that theme that he's been developing for the last six months with everything from the battle to GNX, but let's just not,

gloss over the fact that this is a wild set list for a Super Bowl performance. It is actually pretty wild. And it tells me that he had complete creative control over this thing because I don't think any producer from the outside will look at this set list and approve it because it really is a very rebellious, I guess would be the word to use. I don't know. It was just a very...

calculated and he's way too smart to know that this would be cause some backlash like the masses are just going to be confused at this performance and again i think that's kind of the point so so let's just go ahead and walk through the entire performance and i'll kind of give you my

initial reactions and my kind of lingering thoughts now that I'm kind of thinking about what this all means. So he starts out with the GNX on stage and it's just a single spotlight. It's so cool. And he plays an unreleased song.

his first song at the super bowl with millions of people watching around the world he plays an unreleased song that is insane but for kendrick diehards of course this this is not an entirely new song this was the song that was in the gnx trailer that that dropped about 30 minutes before

GNX came out and this song, which is being called Bodies or Tiramisu, was not on GNX. This, of course, started speculation that there might be a part two to GNX or Deluxe. But in any case, he plays this unreleased song and he plays an extended version of it. So we get more lyrics that we didn't hear in the original snippet. Oh, and of course, I'm forgetting the introduction. So let me back up just for a second here.

So the first thing that we see is this like kind of loading. I think it's playing on like PlayStation video game, like loading that's in the stands. It's like a loading bar to a hundred percent and below you see square, a circle X and a triangle, which I think are PlayStation buttons or some kind of game console buttons.

And then we cut to a shot of Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam saying, welcome to the great American game. And so this very clearly sets up the theme, the story of this performance, which is based on a football game being America's game.

but also Kendrick talking about America at large and the game of the American dream, we might say, the game of assimilating into American culture, particularly as a black person. I think that was a very clear through line through this thing, the assimilation of,

Black Americans into popular culture and all the compromises that one might need to make to do so. That is seems like something he was really driving home throughout the performance, as we'll talk about with the other kind of skits that Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam and the things that he says pretty much point to this theme.

And so between the game console and what he says there, and it's this all, again, all of this play on America's game of football. Um, and also Kendrick playing this game of this performance. I think that is part of it too, because he's going to kind of taunt not like us. And like, should I play the game? Should I play the hits? Uh, and him essentially saying that I'm not playing any games. I'm not playing the game anymore. Uh, and I'm just going to be off.

authentically me, which again goes back to the track list, goes back into him not doing a bombastic version of the Super Bowl show. He's not playing the game. And there's also the game of the battle, which we'll talk about towards the end of the performance, which is again, this larger symbol that Kendrick has been using for the last handful of months. So we get the GNX trailer,

And when it ramps up into the aggressive part of the song, we start to see all the dancers coming out of the GNX, which I thought was just so cool. There's no way all those dancers fit in the GNX. So I'm not sure how they pulled off that illusion. I'll need to go back and like really watch, but it was just cool to see them all piling out. And of course they're wearing red, white, and blue. And these are the, obviously the primary colors of the entire performance. I need to go back and

and really look, but I think that's the only colors in this entire performance is strictly red, white, and blue, which is so PG Lang.

to hone in on a color palette and just nail that aesthetic because even the floors were white right they covered the green of the football field with like a stark white um like a matte thing which is we'll talk about that when we get there but anyways that's a very intentional choice i thought was a very effective and of course red white and blue plays into the american theme but it's also bloods and crips and the union of those colors which kendrick has been playing with with

with the pop-out show, um, with Dodger blue wearing all red at the pop-out wearing all blue and squabble up and then wearing purple in the Superbowl, uh,

A promo picture, which I thought was a pretty clear play on the harmony of red and blue and the union of the West and specifically LA, which he's now been on record as saying that is something he's been trying to do. So it was a very Kendrick Lamar, PG Lang day free type of opening sequence because they essentially lay out the entire show, the central theme of the show within the first season.

however many seconds of the performance and it's all set up right there for us. And I do actually think this is, we're going to talk about this in acts and I think there is three acts. And so we're in the first act, which I'm just kind of arbitrarily calling the great America game. Oh, and before we go any further, we should probably acknowledge what Kendrick was wearing, which was this beautiful custom Martine Rose leather jacket, which is kind of, I think kind of like a varsity jacket. It had a really cool PG Lang logo on the back.

And in the front, it said Gloria.

as if it were like a team name, like a varsity name. And of course this points to the last track on GNX, Gloria being the name for his pen, what he writes with. And it was kind of an ode, homage to his relationship with writing throughout his entire career since he was a little kid. And so I thought that was a pretty cool little Easter egg on the jacket and kind of signaling to what brought him to this stage, to the biggest stage on earth.

It was all because of Gloria, because of his pen. And obviously Gloria, glory has some spiritual themes as well. So I thought that was cool. Easter egg. Also, people have been pointing out his chain, which is first and foremost, a PG Lang chain. It's a lowercase a. And if you look at the PG Lang logo, it is literally the a from the PG Lang logo, but

in the context of this performance and not like us it it kind of doubles the chain itself is a double entendre because it's a minor uh and it's a lowercase a which is how you write a minor so whether that's intentional i'm sure it's a pg lane change first but that meaning's not lost on kendrick come on so after squabble up we get another uncle sam kind of interlude thing and uncle sam says to kendrick

This is to ghetto essentially is the gist of what he says to him. He literally says the word ghetto, which is obviously very coded. And he tells Kendrick that he needs to tighten up. So this coming from uncle Sam is obviously very layered. This is him saying, essentially saying you're being too black. Um, and this is America's game. We think of colored Kaepernick and the history there. Um,

We think of just the general public watching the game right now, like literally he's getting ahead of the critique almost, and that they're not going to respect a song like Squabble Up or the Tiramisu. And essentially playing this kind of meta game with the audience who is themselves probably some of them thinking this is too ghetto, right? Or this is too black or I don't like this.

This isn't this is America's game. We need American hits, you know, which is all very coded coming from Uncle Sam. So Kendrick's response is playing humble. So this is, you know, it kind of walks the line because obviously humble is one of his biggest songs. And then the red, blue and white dancers form an American flag and Kendrick stands in the center.

which feels like a statement. Humble is also not a humble song. The point of that song is all ego and braggadocio. And this transitions pretty quickly into DNA. And all these are very like rap centric songs, right? I can't remember if I said at the top, but Kendrick came here to rap. There are not hooks in this entire performance, except by SZA, which we'll talk about, but he picked songs and he picked parts of songs where he is just rapping.

which I think is so central and important to keep reemphasizing how much he's actually rapping on a Super Bowl stage. So when he performs DNA, he switches kind of sets. I can't remember what shape they were on in the beginning. I think it was a square. Anyways, but they transitioned from that set onto like the longer, it's essentially a street. There's streetlights. And so it's essentially a Compton street, which is also kind of doubling as a field in this game motif.

And I imagine it was a literal football field for Kendrick as a kid playing football in the street as kids do. So I think that was all layered within this. I mean, it's just a pure white strip, right? But had so much symbolic meaning in this minimalistic kind of structure. But this is the first time we're introduced to this street. And then he plays Euphoria. Yeah.

When I heard the horns of euphoria come on, I was absolutely ecstatic. I thought I never in a million years would I thought Kendrick Lamar would play euphoria at the Super Bowl in front of millions of white people. That's like that is crazy. Please acknowledge how crazy that is. Again, any producer outside of PG Lang looking at this set list is like horrified by

What is euphoria? It's not even on an album. But so that was maybe one. I mean, definitely my top three songs on the set. Maybe it's got to be first. Let me just say it's my favorite song that he performed because the shock value of it, especially for like hardcore Kendrick fans. I mean, was that on anyone's bingo card? You know, like on anyone's like if you're betting on the set list, like did anyone have euphoria?

Anyways, I thought that was amazing. But again, it's another rap song. There's not a hook on Euphoria. That was the point of a large part of Euphoria was like, let's rap Drake. I'm going to give you six minutes of no hooks.

one kind of refrain with, I hate the way she walked one line that it repeats twice. If you want to call that a hook or a refrain, otherwise it's just six minutes of Kendrick rapping and just from like an aesthetic, um, just what he's doing to the camera. I mean, a lot of this performance, I need to go back and watch, but so much of it was just a single handheld camera of someone following Kendrick around and Kendrick really just being cut, wrapping straight to the camera and,

not the crowd and just like almost i don't know if it's like confrontational but very immediate very like in your face which i think was part of this too especially with humble dna euphoria all these kind of very much aggressive songs and i should also point out there has been no women on stage yet this is all the people all the dancers to this point are all black men which i think is very intentional and he's going to be very intentional bringing in women uh with scissors portions

So we transitioned from the street. Ken just kind of walks us down the street, walks us through Compton essentially, or LA and we're brought to like under a street light. And there's like an acapella rendition of I deserve it all, which, um, just again, and not another, not just,

a totally unpredictable choice or man at the garden. Sorry, not, I deserve it all man at the garden. I actually thought like, and more, I thought about trying to predict a set list. I actually thought man at the garden might be a cool opener or something. He might open the show with, uh, especially after watching the Timothy Chalamet interview where he said that was like the most important thematic song on GNX. It was, he said, there's always one song on an album that kind of defines the album that

that probably mother I sober off of, off of, uh, Mr. Morale. Anyways, he says man at the garden is, is what defines GNX to him anyways. So he performs this acapella version of it under the streetlight. I don't know if it totally worked for me. That might be,

The one spot I get like kind of like why he did it. But after the brief performance of it, we see Uncle Sam again. And this has all been act two. I don't know if I said that. So I'm considering this after the two ghetto remark by Uncle Sam. I'm considering humble DNA, euphoria and man at the garden part of this act two. And then he comes back. Uncle Sam comes back and he says, I see you brought your homeboys with you.

the old cultural cheat code score, scorekeeper deduct one life. So I'm not entirely sure what this means yet because he just performed like a more traditional, not Kendrick's part, but the backing acapella under the streetlight. And he says old cultural cheat code. So maybe he's saying like that, that was too easy, like hearkening back to these more traditional. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just going to say, I don't know. It's been like an hour.

So the performance continues with peekaboo. Another song I just wouldn't have never guessed in a million years. One of my favorite, it's probably my favorite song on GNX at this moment. Just another song. I would just never have guessed he was going to perform at the super bowl. Like it's crazy visually. I thought this was one of the cooler moments. This is where they're on the X stage and they're kind of doing that like three 60 kind of panning thing and seeing these different groups in the little pockets of the X and

Then shortly after this is when the women come out. This is the part where we get kind of some theatrical elements where he says to the women, I want to make a move. I want to perform their favorite song, but you know that they love to sue. And then they play a little snippet of not like us. And he said, yeah, that song. And so obviously this is pointing to Drake suing around that for defamation around that song and all the speculation leading up to the performance, uh,

Which Kendrick is acknowledging in this very meta clever way, if he was going to play it or not, if he was going to censor the lyrics or not. And so he's building that into the very show that we're witnessing commenting on, um,

the actual leading up to the show uh which i thought was just really clever and like kind of build suspense to the moment uh that he does actually play it and of course he doesn't play at that moment instead uh everything kind of slows down and he starts to perform luther which is you know one of the biggest songs uh in the country right now i think it's the only part he lip-sync i don't think he actually sung it because at that point he was walking across the the field and

And he had to be, I mean, it's breath control. He's been like preparing for this. He's talked about how much he's been running to work on his breath and everything, which I thought was on display throughout all this intense wrapping. But to sing Luther while walking, like it just felt it's the only part of the show. I think he lipsung, which is fine. And of course, this is when he introduces SZA, who gave a great performance as well. Not maybe the strongest feature. I don't know. I love SZA. I absolutely love SZA.

but they also didn't really set her up in a very grand way you know i'm not sure how many people are walking away from the performance remembering sza's feature which is fine you know it's kendrick's show anyways the luther rendition i thought was nice then they do all the stars which is not my personal favorite song uh by any means but it is just a massive hit i am always so blown away i

with how many streams all the stars has. And so this is the only part of the performance that really has melodic hooks that would appease or have a better chance at appeasing white America. I'm generalizing there, but essentially, you know, again, just think about your average football consumer, the average audience member, think about your parents, think about

you know etc etc these are more of the types of songs that they were probably expecting from a super bowl performance uh and it's really the only part of the show that had any in my mind any commercial appeal at all uh and i'm talking general mass commercial appeal and of course kendrick acknowledges it directly because right after luther right after all the stars

we get our next uncle sam appearance and he says this quote that's what i'm talking about that's what america wants nice and calm we're almost there don't mess this up and so this is kendrick directly acknowledging the songs that he's playing at the super bowl like he's doing this meta thing he's playing the game acknowledging the game

acknowledging the game within the game, acknowledging the politics around his performance, around football in general, around America in general. It's all the layers are stacking up. That's what America wants. Nice and calm. That's what America wants from black people, right? Like that's, he's also saying that. And so think about that specific point thematically with not like us. Forget the Drake part, not like us.

Don't mess. He says, nice and calm. This is what America wants. Don't mess this up. And not like us is, I mean, the us and not like us is not just Drake. It's larger commentary, which Kendrick acknowledges in the intro to Not Like Us, right before he starts to play it proper, he says this, within this little musical interlude thing where he says, it's a cultural divide. I'm going to get it on the floor. And then the women respond, you're really about to do it?

And he says, 40 acres and a mule. This is bigger than the music. They respond again. You're really going to do it. So building up this anticipation for not like us. And then he says, they tried to rig the game, but you can't fake influence. And so all this is direct. Again, you can take it as shots at Drake, but he says this is a cultural divide. This is bigger than the music, 40 acres and a mule. So he's directly acknowledging all the layers here. This is not just about Drake.

It's a cultural divide in hip hop. This is a cultural divide in America.

This is a historic divide between black and white and the history of this country. He's playing with all that stuff. And again, just to drive the point home, this is all stuff that was already present in Not Like Us in the battle and Drake as a symbol, as a colonizer of the culture, someone that takes directly from it, but Kendrick feels like he's not treating with the respect that it requires.

someone like him should have for it and the kind of humility that he should have for it as a foreigner, as someone that is not of the culture and is kind of tiptoeing the line between being a guest and being a part of it proper and certainly not in the way that Kendrick Lamar feels like he is, born in L.A.,

raised in section 8 housing etc etc so all that's in there not like us begins proper and the visuals for this is pretty cool because it's him walking down the street that is a field that is Compton that is a literal football field all the layers and

And he's getting closer and closer and closer to the camera. And he's essentially walking us down, just like he walked down Drake. And he's walking us down in this performance. And obviously, like the million dollar question going into this performance was, would he say Drake's name? Would he do the A minor line? Would he say pedophile? That whole verse was like everyone was kind of waiting to see if he was going to do it. Of course he did it. Of course he did it.

I had no doubt in my mind he was going to do that. I don't know if I was actually wondering if he'd actually say Drake's name because I think he censored it out of the pop out show. Did he? Let's get about me. I can't remember, but I know he censored it before. I was curious to see if you would say Drake's name. Not only did he say Drake's name, but

He looked at the camera and smiled while he did it. Of course he said it. Of course he looked at the camera and smiled. He didn't say pedophile. I would guess there are some other sound that came when he said pedophile. Obviously, you just can't say that at the Super Bowl. If he would have said it. One thing to notice about this performance, there was no bleeps.

He didn't mess up on, he censored himself to the point where they didn't have to bleep him out, which is nice. It always bugs me when there's that weird sudden gap of silence for like three seconds because the performer slipped up and said something. And if he would have said pedophile, they would have definitely censored it out. So I like that he kind of just got ahead of that and just controlled the performance within the constraints that he knew he had.

But he performs that whole thing. And of course we get to the a minor line and the entire stadium said a minor, and they did a drone shot to show, I think it's spelling out something. That was something I haven't figured out yet, but when they do the drone shot on the a minor line, uh,

It looks like the dancers on the field are spelling something out. I couldn't figure out what it is yet. Um, and there's also clips of people in the actual stadium coming out and you can hear how loud everyone, like literally everyone in the stadiums yelled a minor thing. So, um,

That's the answer to the question. Did he do it? Yes, he did. And he leaned all the way into it. We also see during this performance, Serena Williams briefly on the streets of Compton doing a little crip walk, which is obviously another kind of shot at Drake, who used to date Serena Williams and then went on to like dis her dis common and then dis her.

her husband on record several times. So there's the Drake element there. Also Serena Williams, not as obviously as extreme as a Colin Kaepernick, but she's had some issues with the sports entertainment kind of world and her personality and her being Black, a Black woman, strong Black woman has had some issues with the sports world. So I think that was definitely, it's not just a Drake thing. There's layers here, right?

And so I think showcasing Serena Williams as a black woman, I thought was really, I mean, it was just a nice touch for just a number of reasons, right? It wasn't just the Drake thing. And Serena Williams for people that don't know is from Compton and she's called out on Not Like Us. So cool to see her there. And then we get to TV Off, which is the finale started with the second half and the mustard line. You know, if you listen to

These lyrics that specifically that verse of TV off in the second half of the song, it's written for the Super Bowl, like at least a large part of it. He talks about running plays. There's some like exercise. He some exercise that football players. I'm forgetting the name. And then the last line of the verses walk into New Orleans with the etiquette of L.A. yelling mustard.

So obviously he was in New Orleans. He knew he was going to perform this song and it ended up being the finale, which I thought was very much appropriate to this game motif. It worked so perfectly to turn your TV off. Think about it in the game motif. It's of course talking to Drake, turn your TV off, but it's also talking to the people watching the Superbowl.

Turn your TV. Like you, you don't like this performance. I am predicting the backlash. I've it's all layered within this performance. It's the set list is calculated. This is a hip hop, pure rap show. I'm bringing rap. I'm bringing LA. I'm bringing the culture.

to the biggest platform in sports and entertainment, the most amount of viewers at any one time. And it's going to rub people the wrong way to quote uncle Sam. This is what America wants. Nice and clean. Kendrick Lamar purposely gave us, I don't know, unclean is the wrong word, but he gave us a raw rap rap centric performance. He brought the literal streets of Compton

to the world, continuing this theme that he's been hitting on since the pop-out show, since the battle. I mean, essentially his entire career, let's be honest, but it's been a very specific way he's been doing this in the last six to eight months. This was just a continuation. It was the pinnacle of it, maybe, or I don't know, the stadium tour is going to be, feels like equally important, but there's only one Superbowl.

This was a huge honor and I thought he nailed it. And so we get the final line, turn his TV off, turn his TV off, and then it goes dark. And in the same where we started, which was the loading, the video game loading, it said game over in the stands. And so you can read that, you know, did Kendrick win the game? Did he lose the game?

I think for Kendrick fans, for hip hop fans, I think, I think he definitely won. I think there will some, there's going to be some people that think he definitely lost. And if you think that he lost your version of loss is his version of winning, right? Because he did exactly what he wanted. He didn't succumb to the pressure of playing hits. He didn't succumb to the pressure of making a bombastic performance.

more traditional, more culturally appeasing performance. He did exactly what he wanted to do. It felt so very authentic to him, to his community, to hip hop. As a hip hop fan, I just, we have never seen anything like this to this scale, to this degree of how much

just rapping there was on the biggest stage. So I think that's the majority of the thoughts that I have at this moment, a couple hours after the show. I'll do some more digging. I'll do some more research. I'm going to watch it obviously a couple more times at least. And if I feel compelled, if I feel like there's enough to do another episode that goes a little bit deeper, I will definitely do that. If I don't feel like there's enough to do a full episode and I find some stuff, just follow me on dissect at dissect podcast.com.

And I'll be posting any like Easter eggs or any details that I find cool. I'll definitely be posting there. Thanks for listening to this. If you haven't already, uh, check out the first episode of the Mr. Morale season, which we just launched last Tuesday. We started with United in grief, uh, tomorrow, Tuesday, what Tuesday, February 11th, we'll have the N 95 episode.

episodes are releasing every Tuesday for the foreseeable future and their video episodes I don't know how many people caught that last week if you're listening on Spotify you'll see not this episode but the the scripted episodes proper are now video if you're listening to this on Apple or anyone else or anywhere else it's not video you can watch the video on either Spotify or now YouTube and

So check those out. Also hit me up on, on Instagram or Twitter or wherever. And let me know what you thought of your performance. If whatever I missed, I definitely missed some stuff again, recording this just a couple hours afterwards. So I definitely want to hear what you guys thought, even as diehard Kendrick fans, which I assume most of the people listening to this are, let me know what you thought of the set list. Even if you are a huge Kendrick fan, I can see some people taking issue with not playing Kendrick.

some of the more traditional songs, or even just going back further than Damn in the catalog. I loved it. I thought it was a rebellious act, a creative, artistic decision. I thought it perfectly tied into the theme of what he was talking about, of this pressure to succumb to the standards or expectations of America, which we know are rooted in

racist, oppressive history. And Kendrick was playing with that. And I think the track list, there was some compromise, but that much GNX, that much rapping, I thought was a choice, a very creative choice. And I loved it. I love this kind of stuff. There's a version of this show. If he was going for applause or awards, I even think Kendrick five, five years ago, seven years ago would have done a very different show because

I think he would have been more traditional. I think he would, I mean, obviously it would have been great and creative, but I think he would have went a slightly or a much more traditional route and giving people what they might've expected more. But I'm, I'm very interested now to go and kind of peruse online and see the general public's feedback to the performance or even Kendrick fans, because I could see this being controversial, especially just so much of the buildup of

to it. There's also not like this big rumored surprise that kind of circulated online. We didn't get a GNX Deluxe. There wasn't big features. Tyler didn't come out. Again, I think all that was intentional. I think this was centering Kendrick. This was centering LA. This was centering hip hop.

but I could see the lack of that maybe rubbing people the wrong way. But personally, I loved it. Very happy with what we got. And I say this all the time now, but Kendrick is the greatest or one of the greatest, if not the greatest artist of our generation. He's operating on all, he's firing on all cylinders at the very, very, very highest level. And this doesn't happen all too often. And we should really be appreciative of such a quality artist

artist with something to say operating on a massive scale like this and what he gave us was was art so i hope you guys enjoyed it thank you guys for listening check out the mr morale season if you haven't already hit me up with your opinions on at dissect podcast and that's it i'm going to bed good night